


Tutor

by Vic_writes01



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Pennywise (IT), M/M, Swearing, they don't know each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21842692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vic_writes01/pseuds/Vic_writes01
Summary: Eddie fails Maths by a large percentage and opts for a tutor only to find that his tutor is his asshole of a roommate, Richie Tozier.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 2
Kudos: 74





	Tutor

Eddie was sure that he was going to pass out. If the notification for his math grade did bot come through soon, he was certain that he was going to pass out from stress.

“Chill Eddio Spaghettio.” Richie, Eddie’s roommate, said. “It’ll come through soon.”

“Don’t call me that!” Eddie groaned, “Besides don’t you have a date, asshole?”

“Nah, he was a dick only wanting dick so I left early.” Eddie groaned again.

It wasn’t that he hated his roommate, it was the fact that his roommate was annoying and constantly talking through a bunch of dirty jokes. Most of the time those said jokes were aimed at Eddie and his mother. 

He was a piece of shit, in the eyes of Edward Kaspbrak. Richie was a high achieving student who barely had to study, while Eddie tried and tried and got high grades across all areas except maths. Needless to say, Eddie was jealous. Richie was everyone’s favourite student, he was well behaved, never skipped classes (unless he had good reasons). It was hard for Eddie to watch as he was once again half a mark from being the top student, topped by Richie. 

But Maths? Eddie was only just passing. In high school, he was almost valedictorian if it wasn’t for the fact that his friend Stanley Uris beat him in maths by a two mark difference. But because his grad school prerequired undergrad advanced maths, he struggled. He didn’t take advanced math in high school, just regular maths. 

“How the fuck was he a dick?” Eddie asked, “if he was anything like you, I’d say that being a dick, is something you both have in common.”

“Ouch Spaghetti, who knew that you were a bully?”

A ding, from Eddie’s phone, interrupted the pair. Eddie shakily reached in his jeans pocket and pulled out the rectangular object, he threw it down on his bed as he looked at the notification saying that the grades were posted. 

As he logged back into his computer, he had already had the grades list opened. Eddie’s hand was shaking as he clicked refresh and sure enough there were he grades. “Fuck me!” Eddie whimpered, it caused Richie to quickly move right beside him. There in all its glory was 35% for one of his topic exams before the mid-semester exam that was in a month. “I fucking failed?”

“You may just need a tutor Eds, it’s not the end of the world. Besides at least you actually put the effort in, unlike others.” Richie said rubbing Eddie’s back for comfort. The truth was Eddie didn’t want a tutor. He didn’t want to seem helpless and stupid, all he wanted was to prove that he could do it. 

Richie left the room to hang out with his friends, leaving Eddie with the lingering feeling of Richie’s hand on his back. A kaleidoscope of butterflies filled his stomach as his back tingled. Eddie ignored it because there was no way he liked his annoying roommate.

Eddie took full advantage and signed up for a math tutor. He caved, he needed help, there was no way that he would get into any good grad schools (especially medical school) without this class. Failing was just not an option for him especially when his mom was paying majority for his college tuition. 

****

The next day, Eddie had made his way down to the library to meet his tutor. He walked slowly alongside the isles, in the quiet study area. He checked the message again before deciding to move into the loud group study area. Sure enough, there was his tutor, lounging on one of the booths, as he got closer he noticed that he looked familiar. 

All too familiar.

“Eddio Spaghettio? You’re my student?” Richie exclaimed getting up from the seat.

“Seems like it.” Eddie huffed in annoyance. “Let’s get this over with.” 

Eddie sat down beside Richie and pulled out all his things required for maths. He had tagged the pages in red that he wanted help with, Richie was surprised that almost all of the tags, for the first half of the semester, were red. It made him wonder how long Eddie had been struggling in the class without addressing his problem before realising he needed a tutor.

“How much study for your other subjects do you have to do tonight?” Richie asked.

“Not a lot for this week, just assignments. Why?” Eddie answered.

“Because there’s a lot here so if you wanted to continue this session tonight or this week, I am happy to do that.” Eddie was seeing Richie in a new light, the socialite roommate he once knew to be a dick, was actually being nice and supportive. 

As Richie pulled out his (minimal) notes and started looking at Eddie’s, it was obvious that there was some miscommunication somewhere when converting what the professor was explaining and what Eddie wrote. 

“Okay, um, you’ve kinda mucked up what he was saying and you’ve also done the right steps in the wrong order. Which is why you’ve been struggling to get the right answer,” Richie explained. “Okay, let’s start with a simple algebraic equation that, if done correctly, Eddie should get a quadratic equation so he cold then solve for x.

Richie watched tentatively as Eddie tried to solve the equation. He moved closer, pressing his thigh to Eddie’s and leaned in to see what he was doing wrong. 

“Okay, you’re taking the wrong thing over,” Richie said using his pen to point at Eddie’s mistake. “Try that particular line again.” He watched Eddie concentrate on the line. Eddie frowned slightly and chewed on his lower lip, he had no clue what to do. It took everything in Richie’s power to not help him, he had to pull away, slightly, just so that he didn’t help the poor boy and overstep his boundaries as a tutor. 

****

At the dorm room, the two continued their study session. Eddie sat up at his desk while Richie was sprawled out on Eddie’s bed with a comic. “Okay so how do I convert this to radians?” Eddie asked Richie.

“Oh that is pi on 2,” Richie said looking briefly at the question. 

“How?”

“I don’t know, I just do.” Richie shrugged and pulled an old notepad out from their shared bookshelf. “Here, this explains how. It’s assumed knowledge that you know how to convert degrees to radians and radians to degrees.”

“Is that why we were never taught how to do conversions?”

“Yeah, it’s stupid if you ask me. Newcomers, like yourself, wouldn’t know that and thus fail because of it.”

Eddie flicked through Richie’s high school notes and just like his notes now, it was very minimal. There was nothing to suggest that Richie even did any further study of the class content since it was only ever what was said in the lecture/class. It amazed Eddie that Richie even knew anything at all.

“Richie?” Eddie asked.

“Yeah?”

“Did you do any self-learning other than the class and lecture notes?” 

“Yeah, but I use different books so I don’t mess up my clean book.” 

“Can I see that one? These are helpful but it’s not really giving me much.” Richie nodded and retrieved his ‘working-out’ book from his bag. It wasn’t like Richie to give a student he was tutoring his rough working book. That book showed every smart approach to every question he practised. He didn’t want anyone copying his work and not being able to figure it out but he knew Eddie wasn’t like that. 

Every time that Eddie sat down to revise and practise what they had learnt in their advanced math class, Eddie properly focused. He’d stay up late studying until he got most of the questions right or he became too tired to continue. Richie knew that if there was anyone to trust with his practise book, it was Eddie.

Eddie moved onto his bed, laying down with his study material propped up on his pillow. Richie was squished, comfortably, in the corner, his legs crossed at the ankles. “Want any help?” Richie asked tossing his comic up on Eddie’s desk.

“Yeah,” Eddie mumbled with a pencil stuck between his teeth. Richie pushed himself down, slotting himself comfortably between the wall and Eddie. “How do you even do derivatives?”

Richie moved closer and positioned himself so he could see the question. Eddie was blushing furiously, he had no idea why. The kaleidoscope of butterflies started to swarm around his stomach and his heartbeat started to echo in his ear. The smell of Richie’s musky cologne tickled his nose as did the subtle scent of cigarettes. He just couldn’t concentrate on whatever Richie was saying.

“Rich, uh, can we maybe pick up on this tomorrow? I’m a little overwhelmed.” Eddie said, interrupting Richie’s explanation.

“Huh? Yes, of course. Geez, you have been at this for 4 hours.” Richie replied and packed up all of Eddie’s and his books, tossing them lightly onto the floor.

Eddie immediately cuddled into Richie and fell asleep. Richie’s musk scented cologne, light smell of cigarettes and his warmth was all Eddie needed to know that he was safe.

As Richie watched as Eddie fell asleep on his chest he felt a somewhat startling but comforting warmth in the pit of his stomach. He knew that none of the guys or girls he dated could ever be like Eddie. Sweet but sassy, innocent but badass, quiet but annoying.


End file.
